Question:
Dr. Watanabe, you are recognized as a pioneer in fuel cell development in Japan. What got you started doing research in this field?

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I originally studied electrochemistry under Prof. Satoshi Motoo at Yamanashi University. I joined the staff here toward the end of 1960. When I was searching for a research topic, I heard a lecture in which the speaker claimed that by the 1980s we could use electric vehicles fueled by methanol. That idea was very exciting to me. According to the literature at that time, there were a few researches on platinum catalysts for the methanol fuel cells to propel electric vehicles. However, it was clear that not all of the pieces needed for this new technology were in place. In fact, there were only few laboratories for electocatalysts. Then, I thought that there was surely room for new research in this area. So, I proposed doing this new work to my former professor. He already had an interest in fuel cell—based cars, and since there were many sub-fields within electrocatalysts that needed further research. It seemed like the perfect time.

Question:
Give us some background on the Clean Energy Research Center and tell us what new breakthroughs have been made there.

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The center started doing research on fuel cell catalysts in the late 1960s. First, we thought that by combining catalysts to form new compounds we could get better characteristics than those of single noble metals. Using technical tools prepared by Dr. Motoo until that time, we were easily able to make all kinds of new alloys, and could investigate a variety of catalytic reactions. We found that the alloys exhibited ten to twenty times higher performance than that of a single noble metal. We then started to think that since each element in the alloy may play its own role in the reaction, it is not always necessary to use a homogeneous alloy; we could just coat or deposit a different element on the surface of the catalyst. Going forward under those assumptions, our group discovered many catalytic actions of ad-atoms in 1970s and subsequently published some of the most often- cited research papers in the world on that particular subject. In the first ten years we had some success in researching fuel cell catalysis, and that led to the Ministry of Education's building of this country's one and only fuel cell experimentation facility. In the ten years thereafter we focused our research on practical applications for the catalysts we designed in gas-diffusion electrodes, and also toward various specific kinds of fuel cells including alkaline, phosphoric acid, and molten carbonate types. In the recent ten years we proposed a new concept called medium-temperature solid oxide fuel cells, and also started working on proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Soon we began seeing results.The subject of fuel cells isn't limited simply to catalysts, but represents a fusion of many disciplines including the chemical, physical, mechanical, and electrical fields. So in the future, I thought we needed to establish a new field called "Fuel Cell Engineering." Fuel cell engineers would transfer knowledge gained from fundamental research to companies, and then follow through with practical applications. Co-promoter of our research center, Prof. Kenzo Hiraoka (Yamanashi University) was proposing that, we might be able to produce low-cost large area solar cells since we are able to utilize low temperature tunneling reactions, which he discovered. So in addition to our fuel cell researches, his research in semi permanent natural energy sources led to the founding of the Clean Energy Research Center in 2001.